Teddy's Sister
by sangkar
Summary: In which Rose comes to terms with the fact that she will never be anything more or less than Teddy's sister. :: Teddy/Rose, Teddy/Victoire & Rose/Lorcan :: T for slight language.


******Teddy's Sister**

**a/n:** _I honestly_ really really _do not like what I've written here. :P Still, it's pretty long, and I hope someone out there enjoys it! ;)_  
**word count:** ~_5.7k_  
**pairing(s)/character(s):** _Mainly - unrequited!Rose/Teddy; bromance!Rose/Teddy; Victoire/Teddy; Rose/Lorcan._

* * *

"Teddy's getting married to Victoire."

Rose Weasley bites down on her lower lip hard. There's a painful lump in her throat.

_You never had a chance anyway, and you knew it. _

She hates herself so much for hoping.

Her brother Hugo grins. "Cool, now he'll be a proper part of the family!"

"I know," says their mother, smiling. "The wedding's on the eighteenth of June, right between the two of their birthdays. Sweet, isn't it? Just five months away."

Rose has an odd taste in her mouth, a little like rust and salt. It's blood, she realizes.

.

_Just five months away._

Rose buries her head in her arms and sobs, her homework all but forgotten. She wants to scream. This isn't _fair. _She knows she's being a drama queen. She knows she's being unreasonable. She knows she never had a fucking chance in the first place; she's just being a whiny diva. Teddy is six years older than she is. And handsome. Of course he'd end up with someone as beautiful as Victoire.

But she still wants to just cry. She's had enough of being the timid, practical, sweet and kind Rose that everyone walks all over. She lets out a short, gasping scream - and closes her mouth immediately, dissolving into sobs again.

_Stop it and suck it up, _she tells herself, but _no. _She's never really made a fuss out of anything, not when Scorpius dumped her for her own favourite cousin because she was too boring, not when Lily didn't think twice about hurting her feelings because she's _Rose _and she can take it, not when Hugo won every single award for the piano out there and her whole family made a big deal out of it without giving a thought to any of her achievements.

And they were right, in an odd way. She could take it. She'd been upset and angry, but she could calm down and just not think about it too much.

Because she had Teddy. Teddy was always there, listening. Her best friend, her companion.

She realizes now that he probably never even saw her as his friend. She was probably just a little, insecure child in his eyes.

God, she was so stupid.

.

"Rose?"

She closes her eyes and breathes in deeply.

"Rose, why aren't you sleeping? It's eleven o'clock and you've got to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow morning."

A tiny sob escapes her mouth, and she clamps it shut.

"Oh, Rose..."

Her mother opens the door and walks in to find Rose staring out of her window, into the dark, starless night. She puts her arm around her. "Is anything wrong, honey?" Concern is evident in her voice, and Rose feels a pang of guilt. She's being _such _a drama queen.

"No, mum," she replies quietly, letting her mother hold her tightly. "It's just ... you know. Schoolwork. Friends."

"Don't you like school anymore?"

"I do, but ..." She sighs. She's telling the truth, but how much can she say? "Teachers expect so much from me, mum." She's still telling the truth - except it isn't really a problem to her; she meets those expectations just fine.

"Oh, hon," her mother says sympathetically, kissing her forehead. "You've gotten all your homework done, right? I'll help if you need me."

"No, it's fine." She tastes bitterness in the back of her mouth. _You'll never know, mum. _"I'll just try and sleep on it."

"You do that. And you've got a wedding to look forward to!" She says it so cheerfully, so carelessly, that Rose is almost tricked into thinking that those words really mean nothing. But they don't. They pierce into her heart, making tears prick her eyes.

"Yeah," she says, trying to sound as offhand as she can.

"I think you're going to be the flower girl. Teddy was always quite close to you."

"You think?"

"Of course!"

"Oh. Alright." She really doesn't give a damn. She doesn't want to have a part in marrying Teddy off to Victoire, a cousin she doesn't even know very well.

"Goodnight, sweetie," her mother tells her, kissing her forehead again and giving her one last hug before getting up. "Sweet dreams!"

Rose waits, and the door closes with a click. It's so hard to believe this is happening - Teddy, the boy with whom she spent the last three summer holidays and most of their free time at Hogwarts. The boy with whom she laughed herself to sleep every night they could. The only one who would even notice that there was something wrong with her and that she really didn't like being pushed around and being taken advantage of.

He was her best friend. But Teddy, Rose realizes, is the kind of person who could have been everyone's best friend.

.

She falls asleep, and dreams.

.

"Hello, I'm Teddy."

(She watches the two vague figures from a few feet away. She wants to cry again when she realizes who they are.)

"I'm Rose," the girl says, jumping slightly and taking her nose out of her book.

"Your Uncle Harry's my godfather," the older boy informs her cheerfully. "He's a nice guy. Welcome to Hogwarts, Rose, and to Ravenclaw. You'll have a pretty good time here, promise. And it's great that you've been Sorted into this House; there haven't been any Weasleys or Potters here since you came."

"Okay," the girl says cautiously.

"Come on, I don't bite," he assures her, laughing a little. "So tell me about yourself."

(She watches their conversation and she watches herself unfold, letting Teddy know more about herself than anyone else. Her heart swells until the scene dissolves, before an iron fist clutches at it. It _hurts. _

Strange, and a little ironic. That was what it felt like the first time she realized she loved him, four years ago.)

.

The scene changes.

.

"Hello, I'm Teddy."

(How _dare _he use the exact same words -)

"Hi? Wait a sec." This time, the girl is skinny and blonde and beautiful, not resembling Rose at all. She finishes her page and marks it before setting it down. She seems so utterly in control, so confident.

"Okay, what?"

"I'm Teddy," the boy says patiently, looking a few years older than he did in the previous scene. "You're Victoire, aren't you? Victoire Weasley?"

"Yeah," the girl, Victoire says, nodding. "Sister of Dominique and Louis, though most people don't know them 'cause I'm the one who, you know, won the national flute competition."

Teddy nods, looking at the girl admiringly. "So I heard. Great job, by the way, I watched you."

(Rose feels like the walls are closing in on her, trying to squeeze her out of this perfect little scene that she doesn't belong in _oh God oh God oh God -_ )

.

"Vic's going to get married to Teddy!" shrieks Lily Potter as soon as she sets eyes on Rose, shaking her cousin's shoulders with a wide, eccentric grin on her face. "Eeeeeeeek!" She claps her hands together. "A _wedding, _Rose, isn't it exciting?" Rose just wants to slap the girl's face. _It's just a fucking wedding. _

"Rose. Rose, we're going to have to plan our outfits. Well I'll do yours if you want. And are you going to be a bridesmaid? Because you know you were pretty close to Teddy, it'll be _so _awesome if he made you wear a proper dress and be polite and charming to all the guests." She laughs.

"_So _awesome," Rose says sarcastically. Lily misses it.

"Oh, Rose. A _wedding. _I'm so excited."

"Yes," Rose replies, trying her best to put a smile on her face and feeling instead like she's trying to smile with a lemon in her mouth. "Have you finished your homework?"

"Oh, who cares about it," Lily replies dismissively with a wave of her hand. "So about the outfits - "

.

Rose has to admit, she's actually quite proud of the fact that no one's noticing how she's feeling. Her teachers tell her cheerfully how _happy _they are that her cousin is getting married to someone she's close to. How _wonderful. _

(Seriously, though, did _nobody _notice what she felt towards Teddy when they saw the two of them laughing together and having fun? Did _nobody _notice how Teddy was the only one who could truly make her happy?)

Her schoolmates are much the same. "Teddy's going to marry Vic!" is the first thing she hears coming out of the mouths of all too many people. She's a whirlwind of emotions; scared, angry, helpless, sad, sometimes just directionless.

Some of them have the nerve to congratulate her because she's obviously going to be a bridesmaid. _I don't fucking want to, _she feels like growling at them. But she can't. It's not _her. _So she doesn't.

.

Some nights, all those emotions just overwhelm her, and she is taken over by waves of gried and sorrow. Sometimes she thinks she's just being a drama queen, and others she tells herself that she _deserves _to be like this once in a while. She's taken her entire life without a word of complaint, and she isn't even _complaining, _she's just crying.

Other nights, she just feels numb. The truth of Teddy's marriage doesn't seem to get to her. _It's all a dream, it's all a dream, _whisper voices in her mind, and these are the nights that she doesn't have to cry herself to sleep.

.

Lily picks for herself a long, ruffled brown dress that shows off her curvy figure perfectly and brings out the intensity in her eyes.

"Really pretty, don't you think?" she asks Rose, opening the door of her changing room for her to see. They're in Hogsmeade; not a moment too late for Lily. And just too soon for Rose. She can't believe that time has the nerve to pass, in the midst of all she's feeling.

"Yeah," she replies vaguely. She wore a brown dress the first time Teddy saw he dance and the first time he told her she was beautiful.

The memory doesn't help. Tears prick her eyes but she swallows them down.

"I don't know, should I get it?" Lily examines the dress with a critical eye, looking at herself in the mirror. "Hm, nice ... it bares a bit of skin at the back, and just enough of my shoulders and arms to look both innocent and not _too _seductive that Mum and Dad won't like it but _just _sexy enough ..." She bites her lips and narrows her eyes. Rose can almost hear the cogs turning in her mind.

"Alright, I'll get it," Lily finally announces. "Mind getting out so I can change back, please?"

"Okay," says Rose.

"You're sure you don't want a dress, right?" Lily asks, concerned. "I mean -"

"I'm going to be a bridesmaid," says Rose with a tone of annoyance and bitterness.

"Well, yeah," says Lily, not missing a beat, "but it's always good to have a backup."

"What do you mean?"

Lily shrugs uncomfortably, and Rose gets the distinct impression that she's trying to think of a nicer way to say something not so nice. "You know, people usually decide on their bridesmaids before sending out wedding invitations."

"No," snaps Rose. "Just buy it already."

"Okay," Lily says, still unconvinced. "You should really just get a backup dre -"

"Just _buy _it," says Rose, and shuts Lily's door for her.

.

The months pass, even for Rose. Time _does _have the nerve to keep on passing. Rose does realize that she should be grateful that it's all going to be over soon, but she doesn't like it. She doesn't like _time. _God, why can't it just rewind to the time she was in love with Teddy, before he got Vic as a girlfriend and before he crushed every single hope Rose had for him to a million little pieces?

And as time goes on passing, she gets more angry than upset. _Why? _Why did she think she had a chance once upon a time? Why did Teddy have to get a girlfriend? What did she _ever _do to Teddy to make him not fall in love with her? They were _best friends. _They were supposed to be forever. She thought she'd done everything she could in her power to make him fall for her _why is this happening why why why _-

.

Every morning now, her eyes are circled with purple and she struggles to stay awake in class.

"Getting a cold," she tells everyone, and takes some pills Uncle George gave her years ago that she swore she'd never use. She's glad she never threw them away. They are exactly where she remembers putting them, underneath her bed and underneath a creaky floorboard. Her nails hurt as she tries to lift it, but she ignores it.

"Fever fudges," he called them.

They work well. She prefers staying in her quiet little bed in the hospital wing, drifting in and out of sleep than to facing so many faces, so many non-Teddy faces every day. Her mother and father visit her for a day, but she realizes she's got to stop taking the pills soon. People don't usually have fevers lasting for a week.

Life goes on. Five months pass. Five months in which she miraculously manages to keep her academic record stable and five months in which she is never asked to become a bridesmaid.

.

She sobs on the floor of her room in a plain grey dress she wore to Grandpa Granger's funeral. It's ugly and it has a strange purple-coloured stain right where her belly button is.

It's the afternoon before the wedding.

This is not fair. She is _sick _of this. She is sick of life.

All the emotions she has let out with her scream suddenly come crashing down on her, and she sobs helplessly. There is no hope. There is. No. Hope. It feels like all the years spent knowing Teddy were completely waster, completely throwaway. Worthless. Nothing.

"Rose?"

Fuck this. Rose has never really cared for swearing, but she realizes just how accurately they depict her situation. Ugly and angry and meaningless.

"Rose, is that you?"

Wait a second.

That's Teddy.

Oh, God.

Teddy. Teddy Lupin. What is he doing here?

"I was just ... well, the wedding's in six hours, I thought I might, um, pop in to see you, Rose."

(Oh. She spoke aloud.)

"Go away, Teddy."

"Rose," Teddy persists. Rose's eyes go wide. He's _real. _"Yeah, I am," he says. Rose hears a hint of teasing in his voice and her anger boils up all over again. Teddy is just ... how _dare _he? How dare he come here and talk to her like nothing ever happened and she's just going to laugh at all his jokes like she used to and -

"Rose, open the door," he pleads. He sounds sincere. How strange.

"Rose, _please_."

"It's not locked," she tells him quietly. At once, her mind shrieks: _You aren't supposed to give in to him! He's not a friend anymore!_

"Thank you," says Teddy. And he walks in.

Emotions crash over Rose all over again. This is bad. This is very very bad. She doesn't want to. No, don't, no no don't don't don't don't don't -

At the sight of him, she collapses in tears.

"Rose, I -"

"_Why, _Teddy?" she sobs. She sounds so pathetic, even to herself. But she just doesn't care. She doesn't give a _fuck _any more.

"Oh, Rose ..." He crouches down and puts his arm over Rose. She doesn't have the will to move it away, and instead shrinks into herself, curling up into a ball. "Here, it's okay, it's okay ..." _No, it's NOT, _Rose wants to shout, but her anger has sapped all her strength and it comes out as a soft, barely heard "No." Teddy pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and offers it to Rose, but she recoils and wraps her arms around her knees.

"I loved you, Teddy," she whimpers. This is it. She can't believe it, but she's finally said it, when it's too late. "I loved you."

His reaction is not what she would've expected.

"No, you don't," he replies evenly.

"I ... what?"

_What is this? _He is just ... this is absolute betrayal to Rose.

"NO!" she yells, and Teddy tries to calm her town but she talks over him. "You don't _fucking know _how I feel, Teddy, just ... Teddy, just don't. You've done enough things to me. I am _through _with you. I don't care if I sound like a bloody diva, Teddy. You've done enough to me. Just stop, Teddy, please."

"Rose, you -"

"No."

Her sobs are silent now, but visible. Her entire body shakes.

"Rose -"

"_No._"

"Rose! Listen to me!"

Rose opens her mouth to yell at him again, but decides to ignore him until he goes away.

"Thank you."

"Not bloody welcome."

Teddy decides to pretend not to have heard her spoken. "Rose, you're not in love with me." He tries to make her look into his eye, but she turns away. "Please believe me, Rose." She hates how he uses her name now. "You're not in love with me."

"You don't _know _anything," she whispers, so angry. "You can't tell me how I'm supposed to feel. Stop it. Stop trying. Go _away._"

Their eyes finally meet, hazel brown to clear, sky blue. Just as Rose feels that unmistakable surge of fury building up in her, mounting to a scream -

- Teddy laughs.

It's a quiet, gentle laugh. Rose knows it's that one he uses when he's truly amused by something. It's that one he uses when Fred and Roxanne pull a classic prank on someone that he actually finds funny, and he laughs this kind of laugh. Rose always liked that about him: that he could find things to laugh at - or people to laugh with - in any situation.

But this is not a situation in which she's going to admire that. This is a situation in which she just wants to punch him in the face with a spell. A painful one. She can visualize it now, with -

"I'm sorry," Teddy says, trying and failing to stop laughing. "Okay. Okay. Okay, this shouldn't be funny. But it is. God, it's ridiculous."

"Teddy -"

"I'm sorry -"

"Teddy, _why _are you _laughing_?"

Teddy takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes. "Okay. Sorry, Rose, it's just -"

"Were you laughing _at _me?"

"I wasn't -"

_"Were _you!?"

I - no, I wasn't. Please, Rose. I just ... this whole situation is ridiculous. You _don't _love me, I promise you that."

He gazes intensely into her eyes, but Rose juts her chin out stubbornly.

"You don't bloody know -"

"Rose!" Teddy cries, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I promise. You'll see for yourself soon enough, I _promise._ Really."

"I don't -"

"Come on, Rose," he tells her gently, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug. "I love you. You're my little sister. And you love me as a brother, deep down inside. You might not think that's how it is, but _it is. _It is. You will see for yourself. But please stop being so sad about me. I miss seeing your smile. I miss _seeing _you, period. But I've had a lot of stuff going on, with the wedding, and ..."

Rose feels tears rolling down her cheeks. It's a little stuffy, pressed against Teddy's (rock hard) chest, but it's warm an it's comforting and it's _Teddy. _

They sit there like this for a little while, Rose sobbing quietly into his shirt and him whispering sweet nothings that Rose forgets as soon as he says them.

"Why aren't I a bridesmaid?"

The question comes out more whiny and hurt and bratty than she intended, but it's not like she even cares anymore. Teddy pulls away just enough for him to look into her eyes.

"We're not having a bridesmaid."

"Wha - ? How can - ? It's your wedding, Teddy, of course you're going to have a bridesmaid!"

He smiles at her. "We were _going _ to have two - you and Dominique."

"So Dom is doing it and not me? Figures," she says grumpily, and without her even knowing it, a half-smile grows on her lips as Teddy chuckles.

"That was what she _wanted. _You know how she is, Rose. She wanted to have the job all to herself, and she threw a fit when she heard you were going to be one, too." Rose's little smile grows the tiniest bit wider. That would've been fun to watch. "If I didn't know better, I'd say she's jealous of you, Rose."

"Why?" Rose asks, perplexed. "She's better than me at everything except schoolwork, and she doesn't even _care _about school. And she's prettier. Also she's related to a Veela. And her sister is -"

"She's not the favourite kind of-cousin of the great and mighty Teddy Lupin, isn't she?" Teddy replies, and Rose laughs a teary little laugh. "Well, maybe after Victoire."

Great way to ruin a moment, Teddy, thinks Rose as her heart is pierced for the nth time.

A prolonged, angry silence settles over them. Finally, Rose says: "Do you really love her, Teddy?"

"What, Victoire?"

"No. Dominique."

"Oh, Rose, no need to be snarky."

"You used to like it when I was snarky."

"Yes, I do love Victoire," he tells her quietly, not facing her and instead staring out of the window, where the early summer afternoon sun blazed.

"... How?"

Teddy sighs and his eyes narrow a little as he thinks of an answer. "You don't think she's my type, do you?"

"Nope," Rose answers immediately.

"I understand that." He nods. "But she _is. _You really should give her a second chance, Rose. She's an amazing woman. Really." He seems so earnest, Rose almost believes him. But _Victoire ... _how can he see anything good in her?

"Feeling better now?"

Rose raises her eyebrows. "Huh?"

"Feeling better? Do you still feel like murdering me?" he asks. Rose isn't sure if he's being playful or if it's a serious question. She scrunches up her expression. She _should _be angry. After all the trouble he's caused her in the last few months, surely she can't just stop being upset and angry in thirty minutes - ?

But ... she is. She searches deep down inside her, but all that weight pressing down on her has left. What - ? Why - ?

But she _loves _Teddy!

("You _don't _love me, I promise you that.")

Oh, God. She _is _ridiculous. She _was _being a brat the whole time. She was just so blind.

And she begins to cry again, just as her tears have dried up and her eyes are starting to look less red.

"I should be angry at you. I should be really really angry at you. I was angry at you for the last five months. I thought I was in love with you for years, I can't just -"

"Rose?" Teddy asks, concerned, as he sees the tears welling up in her eyes. "Rose, are you alright?" He hugs her tightly, again. "Here, it's okay -" he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lacy blue handkerchief. Rose wipes her face on it before asking: "Is it Victoire's?"

"What gave it away?" Teddy asks, pretending to look stunned.

"Oh, I dunno, maybe the little frills on the edges and the pretty flower patterns on it ..."

They both laugh.

"Oh, Teddy, God, help me. I'm such a teenager. It feels like for the last few years my body's been saving up all these hormones for this because, I dunno, nature hates me? So instead of using them to make me look more womanly -" Teddy raises his eyebrows warily "- they've all exploded and turned me into a five-month-old brat."

"Rose, don't think of yourself like that," Teddy says gently, wiping away a stray tear on her cheek. "Hormones are ... they're weird, that's what they are. Don't think that all the things you felt and will feel for the next few years are worthless by blaming it on them. And I personally think they're more of ... I don't know. But don't you mix up hormones with feelings. Feeling are real, Rose. Hormones just blow them wildly out of proportion."

"But they were real! How can they not have been real?" But Rose can see it now. She _is _nothing but Teddy's sister. She has a special place in his heart: a place even Victoire doesn't and can't ever have.

And she's finally satisfied with it.

"No, they weren't," Teddy tells her. "And I do know what you went through. You didn't feel like you had the right to complain because you thought it was just your hormones and growing up, and stuff like that, wasn't it?"

Rose hesitates. "Well, that's what I thought before we got your wedding invitation. Then suddenly I became an entitled bitch who thought I _deserved _to have your love, and -" she winces. "God, I was so stupid, wasn't I?"

"No you weren't, Rose. You're a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. Who was the girl who got four O's on her mock O. W. Ls ?"

"It was only four," argues Rose. "Not the best I could've gotten. Anyway, intelligence isn't measured by exam results - that's what you always told me."

"True enough," shrugs Teddy.

A short silence follows. Rose groans. "This is going to make things _so _awkward for both of us, isn't it?"

Teddy laughs. "Yeah, totally. I'll make sure to make fun of your currently non-existent romantic interest in me every time we meet, 'kay?"

They are interrupted by Rose's mother barging right through the door into Rose's room.

"TEDDY!" she shrieks, her eyes wild. "Oh my God, Teddy, you're getting married in a few hours! What are you _doing_? And Rose, you aren't wearing _that _thing to the wedding, are you?" She reaches down and pulls Teddy up, half-shoving him out of the room. "Apparate _right now, _Ted, to the Burrow! I should've kept an eye on the clock. My God, you two, you need to get ready!"

"Mom! It's okay, he can take care of himself! And _you _let him into the house -"

"Get dressed, Rose!" her mother says, apparently not hearing her. "You can borrow something of mine if you want. Move!"

.

At seven thirty in the evening exactly, Rose finds herself in the front seat of the funky tent that Victoire's parents got married in, right in front of the couple who are happily snogging each other's faces off, and two seats away from everyone's least favourite Aunt Muriel. She is wearing her mother's knee-length lavender-coloured dress; it's a little bit big for her, but it fits.

"I'm very old, you know, but I remember when the French girl's parents got married clear as day," Aunt Muriel informed anyone who would listen. (Basically, no one.) "She looks very much like her mother. Not just enough curves on her. Good posture, though, I'll give her that. And really a little too _French _for my taste -"

Rose grins a little and claps along with everyone else as Teddy and Victoire finally release each other and stare into each others' eyes lovingly. So lovingly that three rows behind her, Rose can hear brother Hugo and her cousins James, Fred and Roxanne making puking noises and being told off by Aunt Angelina. And in the row just behind them, Lily, wearing the brown dress, dabs at her eyes and sighs with happiness.

Against all odds, Rose has managed to enjoy the evening. She had a proper conversation with Dominique - her respect of whom has not increased even the slightest, though she finds her more amusing now than infuriating. She can put up with it. It hurts her a little to realize that Dominique is now Teddy's proper sister, but she can deal with it. She and Teddy might not be related by blood or by law, but she will always and _has _always been his sister in both of their hearts.

And she had a proper conversation with Victoire, who, to her surprise, is really quite nice and non-judgmental. It might've had something to do with Rose's mother standing behind her protectively, but Rose didn't mind. She still can't quite understand what Teddy sees in Victoire, but she can tolerate it.

Victoire and Teddy are beginning to slow dance. "Whoo-hoo!" shouts Uncle George. "You go, Teddy!"

Meanwhile, Andromeda and Grandma Weasley are sobbing while hugging each other, and Fleur rests her head on Uncle Bill's shoulders.

"You enjoying it?"

Rose turns around, startled by the voice. "Lorcan Scamander!" she exclaims.

He grins a little lopsided grin. "Hey, Rose. Missed me much?"

In Hogwarts, Lorcan was the person Rose had sat next to, a fellow Ravenclaw of the same age, whenever her brother or Teddy were playing or practising a game of Quidditch. He'd never been quite as popular as his twin brother Lysander, who was a Beater for their Ravenclaw's Quidditch team. Rose hasn't seen him in months; she never went to Quidditch games much anymore, since Teddy left.

"Oh, I don't know, I don't think I even noticed not talking to you," Rose replies playfully. Lorcan raises his eyebrows, and she laughs before giving him a hug. "Kidding, I guess I did. I didn't know you were coming to their wedding?"

"Apparently I am," Lorcan replies offhandedly, grabbing a glass of Butterbeer from a passing waiter. "My parents are pretty tight with Molly Weasley and your father and his siblings." He takes a cautious sip. "Hey, this isn't so bad. Usually any Butterbeer coming from anywhere other than Hogsmeade, I'm sorry to say, sucks."

"I don't like Butterbeer," says Rose, shrugging.

"How _could _you?!"

"It's actually possible to live without it, you know?"

Lorcan shakes his head. "Can't imagine how you survive. I _live _on Butterbeer at Hogwarts. It keeps my head straight. Stops me from dying underneath all the work."

Rose frowns. "All you need to do is finish stuff teachers give you _before _the last minute, you know?"

"Nah, too much effort."

"Then you can hardly complain about -"

"Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing out that I live on Butterbeer when I'm at Hogwarts," says Lorcan, holding up his hands in surrender.

"Oh, fine. I didn't know you liked Butterbeer."

"You don't know _me, _Rose Weasley," Lorcan says, nodding gravely. "We didn't exactly talk much when we were watching games and practises, didn't we?"

"No, you talked my head off about how much attention Lysander gets and how you don't get it because you're at least as good-looking as he is and I just zoned out and read my book, mostly," Rose answers, a little smirk on her face.

"You guys! Hey, Rose!"

It's Lily, dancing with her father, the famous Harry Potter. Her face is flushed with happiness and excitement. "Rose, come join us; stop being so anti-social, the everyone else is joining in!"

"I don't dance," Rose protests, but Lily laughs. "'Course you do, you've never even tried!"

"But I don't have anyone -"

"Oh, just grab someone." Her father grins as he spins her around four times in a row. "Rose, just this once?"

"She's insane," Rose says, turning back to Lorcan and rolling her eyes. "Seriously, _me dancing_?"

"I think -"

"I mean, I'm already talking to you, that should be good enough for her."

Lorcan grins wickedly.

"Yeah, it'd be really amusing to see you dancing ..."

Rose glowers at him. Then her eyes widen with horror as he grabs her arm and tries to pull her to the dance floor. "_What?_ Lorcan! I - no!"

"Come on, Rosie," smirks Lorcan. Rose shoots a death glare at him. She _hates _that name. "Will you be my dance partner?" He does a comic little bow, and Rose swears she feels her heart melting just a bit.

"I ..." She hesitates, then sighs. "Oh, God, Lorcan, fine. But just for this one song."

It's the Genie Finders, one of the bands Rose and Teddy would listen to when they felt like it. The song is called Light My Fire - some shallow song about love and joy and Prince Charming, one that Rose claims to hate but kind of enjoys. After all, when this song was playing and Teddy was beside her, she couldn't help imagining him as her own Prince Charming.

She smiles a little at Lorcan. She remembers the time, three whole years, when she never dated anyone even once because of Teddy. She can see him waltzing with Victoire now. It's sad and it's sweet, but Rose finds herself simply letting go. Maybe the whole thing she had for Teddy was just the hormones, maybe it wasn't. But simply realizing that she had her own house in Teddy's heart as his own sister relieved so much of the pain.

She should let someone else have the chance to be her Prince Charming, she thinks as Lorcan makes her laugh with his attempts to imitate his brother's graceful dancing.

They end up dancing to all of the songs, all the way through the night.

* * *

**a/n:** _ASLDGFSKLJGFLKAJGSFKJFG;AJKSGL; I COULD SPEND SOME TIME TRYING TO GET THIS JUST RIGHT EXCEPT I'M NOT BECAUSE I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH THIS. /flips table_

_Ahem. Thanks for reading this. :D_


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